"I want them to lose every game," Burns said Wednesday. "You think I want them to do well?"

The obvious storyline of Thursday night's game at HP is the first meeting of the season between the Sharks and the Wild -— teams that revamped their rosters this summer by making not one, not two, but three trades.

Burns was the biggest catch for the Sharks. And he's playing for the first time against a team where he had spent his entire pro hockey career.

Burns said he has been paying close attention to the Wild, who are riding a five-game winning streak and could be the NHL's hottest team right now. But while he has a lot of close friends in the organization, he made it clear that he's not rooting for the Wild as a team.

"I've been watching how they've been doing, hoping that they would lose every game," he continued. "You have to be competitive to reach this level and I'm a pretty intense guy. And when a team doesn't want you, you sure don't want them to go 82-0."

And one more: "I have a lot of friends there and you want them to score six goals and lose."